No, you have no outstanding milestones, so the lunar pass will have only the normal -1 penalty.

JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.- NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11

Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.

MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.

ChaserGrey here, broadcasting from Hour 19-20 without sleep. Going to hit the rack now, but I'm going to be working on an investor presentation tomorrow and Friday, then doing the presentation Saturday. Soonest I can come up with a plan is Sunday. Sorry for the delay but that's how it is.

If someone else wants to offer a plan for the Director's rubberst- I mean, approval, go for it, or if the Director has the time or inclination to step in, by all means. I have some ideas but too scattered to draw them together.

Unnamed MASA Engineer was up on stage in the main auditorium, and everyone was staring at him. It felt very, very weird. He'd always been one of the starers. He was behind the podium. That was wrong too. Everything about this felt wrong. No matter. He tapped the microphone - just once - and began to speak.

"Gentlemen! Well, some of you are, anyway. As you may have heard, through an increasingly bizarre chain of events, I have been catapulted - however temporarily - into the top spot, despite persistent rumors of ties to known Commienists. And I mean actual members of the Commienist Party of the Zenobian Onion. It is indeed a quite unusual set of circumstances. However, as you well know, MASA is my middle name, and I'm not going to let you down.

"The Zenobians - " Engineer looked around quickly to see if there were any members of the press in the room - "The Zenobians have backed us into an awkward position. Despite the successes with the Hermes spaceplane, of which we can be justifiably proud, the Commienists have the lead in several important areas. Top secret intelligence - this is not from those bunglers and idiots at the CIA - indicate that the Zenobians have major advantages in the following areas:

"1. Orbital docking maneuvers. Our information indicates that their technology and skill in this area is close to being as good as it gets. This is a major issue for us; we have to catch up here or the race is lost. We will need several successful tests before being able to conduct landings.

"2. Heavy-lift rockets. We still have as of yet little information about the Zenobians' new super-heavy rocket, or whether or not it is remotely near operational. However, we're worse off - preliminary design work on the Saturn V has been underway for some time, but no metal has been cut. This will be an expensive one. It is however necessary.

"3. Lunar probes. As we know, the Zenobians have been the first to soil the moon's surface with a probe soft landing. This gives them not only valuable experience in manned soft landings (OOC note: there is not actually a tech transfer for starting a lunar lander with a lunar probe at high safety factor.), but also valuable information on the lunar surface for later landings. This has also given them valuable experience which will help them complete circumlunar flights safely.

"4. Booster modules. The Zenobians are apparently very close to having a rocket stage ready to send one of their craft to the moon. Whether it will be their spaceplane, which is projected to enter service later this year, or their rumored "Zond" moon-ship, is as of yet unknown. I have a bad feeling that we'll find out soon, though.

"We are in a very tough position. The choice of the heavier TLI booster stage for the Hermes requires us to build a Saturn V to make a manned circumlunar flight. This means we have two mutually exclusive priorities - the Saturn V for manned lunar missions, and docking experience. If we prioritize orbital docking this year, the Zenobians may be able to fly both a circumlunar pass and then a manned lunar orbital before we are able to do any of that, and it's hard enough to wring a budget out of Congress without being behind in everything. On the other hand, if we prioritize the Saturn V and circumlunar flights, we may be able to beat the Zenobians to a manned lunar orbital flight; however, this will require us to sacrifice progress in docking. We may end up being all dressed up with nowhere to go.

"Speaking of which, there's a final factor which has to be considered - the lunar module. The same decision which has committed us to the Saturn V has committed us to Grummang's cheaper and more useful LM proposal. We still have problems though - starting development now would get us ahead of the Zenobians in that field - I've seen reports showing that they have yet to start any such program themselves - but that would drain the rest of our budget for this year and leave us not better placed to begin the Saturn V in 1972. We're in between a rock and a hard place, gentlemen - anyone want my job?"

Teddy Space CenterOffice of U.M. Engineer

Engineer sighed. Now he knew why the Director drank so much, and why Grey drank so much, and why Houston drank so much. He was currently predicting the loss of the entire MASA engineer corps to cirrhosis of the liver.

Engineer's MASA Plan #5 - Spring 1971Priorities: Docking, Saturn V in 1972Notes: Derived from Plan #4, this plan also cuts back astronaut recruiting to make more funds available for Saturn V in 1972. I don't want to cut the Kicker, not totally, because the Saturn V won't be much use without it.

Addendum: I think docking modules stay up for a year after they are launched; you can launch one, and schedule (orbit) missions the season after they go up, so you can get a bit more mileage out of them.

Joined: 2002-10-30 07:40pmPosts: 4811Location: In a dark reflection of a better world

Fax remembered that his 'package' needed air. He went outside as planes flew by, turning on Von Evilstein's air supply. The man did not look happy. The Agent wondered what Johnny Von Braun would think of this, a former Thanasian, who served with the Communoids, and was now a Murcan prisoner. Less than that, he was a exhibit from the sleeping gas being filtered in the chamber. Something was wrong with the old design, as it used both Thanasian and Zenobian parts, half of which weren't compatible with the other half, so most of the frame's interior was taken up by overly redundant machinery. This meant that the captive or 'passenger' inside could not lay down, only sit, and that was if their legs were laid out straight in front of them. With metal clamps on the arms, legs, and torso, the man could not move if he were to awaken.

The design was obviously Thanasian, but the Zenobians had apparently found use of them, and so had Agent Squirrel.

All right, since we seem to have a bit of downtime, perhaps it's time for the Zenobians to start planning ahead...

It's time for Mishingun's Five Year Plan!

1972: Our current projected budget is 104 MB. I'm going to use this to take into account the possibility of a failure in one of the manned launches scheduled for the fall, which would roughly balance out the prestige gain of the success of the other manned flight. They might both succeed, but it won't hurt to be conservative now and accelerate later when we know what is possible. However, some risky steps may be taken - which in turn may have to be pushed back. This is a study of what will be possible within the budget.

So at the start of 1972, what will we need to accomplish before landing a man on the moon? If the lunar pass is a success, we will have the following left to do:

Fly a Duration D mission

Accomplish a manned lunar orbital - which would require no further R&D

Test a lunar lander - requiring the development of the lander, as well as completing development of the N1

Therefore, though it breaks Mishingun's heart, N1 development should be further delayed to 1973 to allow funds for developing a lunar lander, since the N1 isn't necessary without it and the LM will take longer to develop.

Starting the Duet in 1972 and doing max research for two seasons will cost 55 MB, which will leave ~50 MB for other tasks in 1972.A Lunar Orbital should be scheduled for Fall 1972, since the crews for it will not be available until Spring 1972 anyway. This will cost 28 MB.

This leaves only 11 MB for Lapot, though the unallocated budget from 1971 (15 MB) should cover any remaining research necessary. Therefore we should schedule a Lapot Duration D flight for Fall 1972, before the Voskhod flight, since we don't have spare crews to fly the Lapot in Spring 1972. This has its risks, but I hope to avoid having push the lunar orbital flight back into 1973.

1973

Hopefully by now we will have successfully flown a lunar orbital. That leaves us with the following goals:

Improve Lapot reliabilityBring N1 close to Max R&DBring Duet close to Max R&D.

Still assuming the same budget of ~105 MB (which should likely be higher by now):

R&D on N1 and Duet will cost a total of 80 MB. They should be quite close to Max R&D by the end of 1973.That leaves us with money for 3 Lapot flights on R-7s. If we have more money available, Lapot flights should be increased accordingly.It may be possible to do a Manned Orbital LM test in Fall 1973, on the N1. This will give us one LM point; we need three to earn the failure prevention. A lunar orbital LM test earns two.

1974:

This will be the target date for the lunar landing - in the Fall.By this time Lapot reliability should be good enough for lunar flights; therefore, a Lapot lunar orbital LM test should be scheduled for Spring 1974. This will give us the 3 LM points to avoid a failure. (We don't strictly need these, but it could help...)

The LM test and the Landing will cost 38 MB each, for a total of 76 MB. This should leave room in the budget for remaining research on N1 and Duet if necessary, as well as further Lapot flights for maximum reliability. We might also consider unmanned Lapot lunar passes to improve Kicker reliability if funds are available - one costs 22 MB.

So that's not exactly five years, but what can I say, we're fulfilling the goals of the Five-Year plan in Three! That's always good, right?

The problem with your plan Comrade, is it assumes no major game changing disasters.

Need I remind you we're playing BARIS?

This odyssey, this, exodus. Do we journey toward the promised land, or into the valley of the kings? Three decades ago I envisioned a new future for our species, and now that we are on the brink of realizing my dream, I feel only solitude, and regret. Has my entire life's work been a fool's crusade? Have I led my people into this desert, only to die?-Admiral Aken Bosch, Supreme Commander of the Neo-Terran Front, NTF Iceni, 2367

True; it is a Five Year Plan after all, so if it has to take five years then so be it. I think this may be the minimum schedule to get to the Moon, based on budgets and research requirements mainly. I thought it would be useful to try and figure out what we can do, how fast we can do it, and what order to do it in. That last point is probably the most important; figuring that out means that we can accelerate or delay the schedule as appropriate to circumstances, but we don't have to substantially deviate from it.

In Zenobia, everything is bigger, even years!Only great Zenobia can have a five-year plan that can be accomplished in three!

The Greeks are somewhat undependable allies when it comes to keeping promises. I am sure the fleet of 300 galleys they promised will turn out to be 3 guys in an oversized cooking pot. (Thanas, revealing the plans for German world domination)

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.- NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11

Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.

MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.

As of tomorrow morning (1000 GMT) I will be unavailable due to house moving shenanigans. If ChaserGrey has not replied by then with a better/alternate plan, then Plan 4 is to be adopted.

I will be back online (hopefully) by around about 1800 GMT on Friday. ChaserGrey, you're minding the farm again.

"I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams" - Hamlet

"Bones' remedies for problems seems to revolve around giving his patients a prescription of heavy drugs, booze, or taking them to strip clubs. He is either insane, a drug addict, or the best damn Doctor in Starfleet!" - SFDebris

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.- NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11

Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.

MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.

The Greeks are somewhat undependable allies when it comes to keeping promises. I am sure the fleet of 300 galleys they promised will turn out to be 3 guys in an oversized cooking pot. (Thanas, revealing the plans for German world domination)

There was much commotion and panic and thus, nobody noticed when the rocket ignited.

And because people were busy wheeling out a bleeding booster controller, nobody noticed a small and easily correctable problem in the fuel pumps.

***

HERMES VI, MAY 1971

"Gentlemangs! Today we accomplish incredible feats of Capitalist labors! With the power of the great robber baron spirit the Murcan people shall accomplish something that was never done before! We shall have a...MANNED RENDEZVOUS WITH AN ORBITING TARGET VEHICLE!"

The journalists listening to the presentation seemed skeptical, "But Mr. Porkins...", one of them asked the MASA press officer, "...didn't the Zenobians do exactly that like five times?"

"No. It was a commienist lie and propaganda. Nothing of the sort ever happened."

"But international tracking stations..."

"LIES AND PROPAGANDA! What is it with you goddamned journos and your lack of patriotism?!"

Porkins' sudden outburst had the opposite effect to what he intended to accomplish: it made the journos satisfied and smug instead of cowing them into submission. One guy snickered. The press officer managed to retain shreds of his dignity by not breaking down into tears before he was out of sight in the male bathroom.

All of that went pretty much unnoticed on the floor of the launch control bunker.

"All right Pete, we're almost there. Any last words?"

"Oh, what a smartass. I still owe a hundred bucks to you, so you better make this launch work."

FIDO yawned. With nothing exploding on the way up, his job was quickly becoming boring. He got himself together, though: he wouldn't be replaced by some bulldog or rottweiller. No way, not before the moon landing.

With orbital insertion complete, the crew began their checkouts and other orbital activities. It didn't take long: their vehicle was rapidly catching up to the orbiting Agena docking vessel. Soon it was acquired by the rendezvous radar, tested so thoroughly during the earlier unmanned test.

"Pioneer, we have power up. Agena is ready to take you."

Something crackled in the radio channel. It sounded like a snicker.

"Uh copy that! Come on boys let's give her what she wants!"

More snickers followed, this time from the flight control crew. Their maturity and professionalism were always impeccable, after all.

"Coming up. Good radar lock. Let's get this mother lined up."

Everyone watched the telemetry feeds intently. Even the journos: the ships could collide, after all, delivering them material for the evening press.

"Hundred feet. Approach five per second. Ninety. Eighty...approach three per second. No problems, no problem."

There was a pause. A very long and very nervous pause.

"Uh, Pioneer?"

Still silence.

"Pioneer, come in."

"One moment, let us smoke one. We deserve it."

"Flight, I'm having contact lights."

"Yes! Woo! IN YOUR FACE, AGENA!"

Connoway got several disapproving looks from his crew.

JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.- NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11

Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.

MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.

Vasily Mishingun's yell reverberated through the vehicle production hall. He just finished reading a report from Unnamed Zenobian Engineerski, who delivered a scathing report about the quality of stabilization gyroscopes of the Proton launch vehicle.

"I will have to report to the Chief Designer!", Mishingun said threateningly.

Back in Baikonured, however, a similar scene was playing out, only with less screaming.

"Comrades Smirnoff and Rukavinishnikov? That is very sad, da. Especially this business with Rukavishnikov...liver problems, hmm? That is a surprisingly common problem at the cosmodrome...", Syrgy Pavylyvych mused to himself. Incidentally, this season's forced retirements had also left the suborbital Lapot flight without a primary crew. He decided to analyze that problem later, and got back to his program reports.

Well, this is the critical moment. From a manned lunar pass it's only a few missions to a landing, but it's also an extremely risky flight. Everything depends on whether or not Zenobians succeed or have a catastrophe ; The final showdown, if you will.

For Murcans, their docking program got a sudden boost with TWO completely succesful flights. They're really racing ahead, though they still have a long way to go.

Also: Take note how astronauts who spent a long time without assignment get a small bonus to their mood ; But don't delude yourselves, their mood will start dropping due to incompatiblity really soon

JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.- NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11

Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.

MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.

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